Tools

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Note: This nifty patch makes it
possible for you to actually have Simmies living downtown or at their
favorite Vacation getaway.

Note: I used my VacationIsland PayPhone to
repair my haunted lot, and this tutorial is written with that as the
solution. I have no instructions on how to use Totally Sim Crazy 2'sexe
phones, so please follow any of their provided install instructions precisely
if that object is your chosen repair.

Build/Buy Patch:

If you dont have it already,
I recommend that you get and install Davehs Build/Buy Patch located in
SimslicesFree section on the programs and patches page.
This ingenious patch will allow you to access the build/buy mode while
you have simmies on vacation at your haunted hotel or any other
VacationIsland lot. I think he has them for all EPs. Please, follow Davehs
install instructions for these! Once you have them installed, you will wonder
how you ever got along without them.

VacationIsland
PayPhone Repair:

After transferring the lot, you will either need my VacationIsland PayPhone to
repair the lost payphone or if you would prefer, you could download Totally Sim Crazy 2'sexe
payphone replacements. I have not tested them and do not know how well they
work, but they have replacement payphones for DownTown, MagicTown,
StudioTown, and VacationIsland. You can download all of their
exe payphones in their The Sims 1 > objects>Hacked location. As always, please
follow all provided installation instructions with any objects you download!

The
Objective

First,
an important note from the author:

Howdy!
Howdy, to all of my fellow Sim Fanatics, and WELCOME to another one of my fun
and yet daunting tutorials.

If
you are anything like me, you will likely find this tutorial fun and exciting
because anything that can add a new dimension to your Sims 1 game, is always
something to look forward to!

Also,
it should be a little scary, because whenever you manipulate ANY files inside a game, you
risk messing the whole thing up and having to uninstall/reinstall the whole thing. No one
wants to do that, so, please, be sure that you know what you are doing before
you change anythingand keep in mind that if you
should decide to use this tutorial in any way, you do so at your own risk! I am not responsible for
anything that might go wrong with your game or your puter.

What
is the purpose of this tutorial?

Ya, you read that right! You can actually exchange any
expansion lot for a home lot and vice versa! When I say expansion lot, I am
referring to DownTown, VacationIsland, StudioTown,
MagicTown, and the least exciting oneOldTown.

I decided to write this tutorial for those of you who are
more adventurous, like me, who want to explore and maybe expand on this
possibility.

However, its important that we note that the
purpose of this tutorial is to help a fellow Sim Fanatic build and test a Haunted VacationIsland Lot. Why is this important?
Because, for the purpose of this project the transfer is only going to be a
temporary one

Again, you ask Why?
Well, because even though you can transfer one expansion lot from one part of
the Sims to another, its not always advisable without a purpose. The reason for this
is there are hidden markers on EVERY lot that make the lots behave in their
usual manner.

For example, the Downtown,
StudioTown, and VacationIsland,
etc. all have invisible markers that allow for random pedestrians to come to
the lot. This is great, if you want to have a downtown apartment type
setting, BUT, none of these lots
have the necessary markers that a residential lot needs to will allow the
School bus to pick up the children or that would allow your working Sims to
be picked up by the carpool.

Now, you saySo, I have cheats to bypass those problems, What else
can be affected?

Among other things, your neighborhood view of the lots
might look distortedwhich some people might not be too fond ofYa,
this is only a minor inconvenience, if it can be called an inconvenience at
allBut
there are other functions that are naturally going to be effected by moving
the lots around; so, unless you have the necessary hacks to overcome them(YES there
are some fabulous hacks) then I dont recommend you move the lots
permanently.

Anyway, as I said the purpose of this Tutorial is to help
another Sims Fanatic create her very own Haunted VacationIsland Inn. She had
tried killing simmies(the poor things) on
her VacationIsland lot to inhabit the popular vacation spot with ghostshowever,
her victims just would not die!

So, what I am
attempting to do is make a haunted VacationIsland
Lot by first assigning a VacationIsland
lot to a residential lot. Then I
will create a family of doomed simmies for the purpose of creating ghosts to
inhabit this wicked manor

Once I have done what needs to be done, I plan onthen RE-assigning
the lot back to the VacationIsland lot and
testing the manor to see if the ill fated residents will now walk among the
living*eerie music plays*

After we do this, I plan to test the VacationIsland lot, to see if the ghosts born in
the residential lot survived into the move from residential to
VacationIsland! Fortunate you, you get to come along with me on this exciting
journey!

Success Story!

Update 11/23/2006
As I was building this tutorial, I was conducting my experiment and found
that my theory is indeed correct! I have
successfully created a haunted VacationIsland lot! So, I thought
I would post the update here, for anyone curious as to whether or not this
tutorial is really worth reading!

Chapter One

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The beginning!

Okay, now that all the formalities are finished, lets
build ourselves a haunted hotel!

Load up your Sims game!

Choose a neighborhood that you are
not using, or one that doesnt have any of your best/favorite lots
or simmies there. For the purpose of this project, Im using neighborhood 7, and I have chosen the empty lot I have located at 2 Sim Lane.

Fig 4

B

Click on the Picture to enlarge this example!

Note: Do NOT forget what neighborhood you are using and what lot number, because these will be the files youre moving around
later.

Chapter Two:

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Note: If you choose a lot from
another EP, you will need to get a replacement phone for that EP. I only made
and tested one for VacationIsland, so you could try using one of Totally Sim Crazy 2'sexe
payphones. They have replacement payphones for DownTown, MagicTown,
StudioTown, and VacationIsland.

I have not tested them and do not know how well they work,
but since this is an experiment anyway, you could try them.

The choice!

Now
that you have chosen your residential guinea pig lot, you now
need to choose your expansion pack lot. Since I am trying to create a
Haunted VacationIsland Hotel, it only makes sense for me to venture to
VacationIsland and pick the perfect
haunted vacation lot. Thats what we shall do now!

Head to your choice
expansion screen in your Sims game, (DownTown, VacationIsland, MagicTown,
StudioTown)and pick the lot you
want to play with. I have chosen 42 Old Volcano Way located in the upper right corner of VacationIsland! It looks like the perfect place to build my very
own Simland version of the infamous Overlook
Hotel. (*giggle* Who knows
where that came from, ya? *giggle*)

Fig 5

B

Click on the Picture to enlarge this example!

Note: Do NOT forget what lot
number your expansion lot is assigned to, because this will be the
file you will be moving later.

Chapter Three:

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Note: Even if you already know how to
back up a file, this section is still important to this project because it
contains valuable information regarding the files and folders necessary to
complete this mission..

The Backup!

Okay, time for backing up the files so that if you need to
return them all to normal, it will be a simple and easy thing to do. Even if
you feel confident that you dont need to do this step, do it anyway!Because
you WILL need the original
residential lot in a later step.

Question:Do you
remember what neighborhood you chose to use? If not, go find out now, then
come back to this step.

Question:WAIT!
What if my opened Sims folder doesnt look like the one in your example? What
do I do?

Answer:You need to change your folder view. You will find a quick tutorial
of how to do this at the bottom of this tutorial.

Note: To copy
a file to a new location, simply right click on the file and drag it to the
new location, then release your mouse button. This will release a new menu on
which you need to locate and choose the option labled Copy Here. Dont forget to do this with BOTH lots.

So,
right now, minimize your Sims game! (You can do this by pressing the Alt and Tab keys on your
keyboard simultaneously.)

Now,
open yourSims main folder! If
your Sims is installed in the default location, you will find that
folder here.

C:\Program Files\Maxis\The Sims

If your Sims1 is NOT installed in
the default location, our SFC
FAQs page will tell you how to find it.

(Oh, and dont
worry. You can do this even though your Sims game is running! It wont hurt a thing!)

Okay,
now that we have our Sims main folder open, we want to locate our Neighborhood file that contains
all of the lots we are wanting to work on. What we are looking for are
folders that are located toward the lower part of the list. The
neighborhood files are the ones that are named UserData.

Fig 6

B

Click on the Picture to
enlarge this example!

The
UserData files are named according to each neighborhood they represent,
with each having a number after its name to indicate which neighborhoods lots it contains.

The UserData folders are named according to
each neighborhood they representeach having a number after its name
which indicates which neighborhood lots it contains. The only UserData folder that does NOT have a number, is the representative of
neighborhood 1. ( Note: You
might not have this many UserData files if you dont have all
of the expansion packs. Thats okay, its not going
to hurt anything!)

Neighborhood

UserData

Neighborhood 1

UserData2

Neighborhood 2

UserData3

Neighborhood 3

UserData4

Neighborhood 4

UserData5

Neighborhood 5

UserData6

Neighborhood 6

UserData7

Neighborhood 7

UserData8

Neighborhood 8

Okay, do you remember what
neighborhood you chose? Good!

I chose neighborhood 7. So, what I have to do is look for the UserData7 folder, because that is the one
that will contain ALL of the lots for
neighborhood 7.

Okay,
now that we have located our neighborhood file, we want to open it now,
if you havent done so already.

Houses

Now,
look for the file that is labeled Houses.
This is the file that holds all of our lot files for our neighborhood!
Open it now!
(Ifyour Sims is installed in
the default location,you can
use one of the links below to open the house folder for your
neighborhood.)

Inside
the Houses folder
youre going to find dozens of house files named in
succession, just like the UserData
files wereAnd just as in their case, each number after the House name represents something
important. In this case, its the lot number.

Okay, if you can remember which
two lots you chose to switch, these are the files we are going to copy somewhere safe
to back them up. In my case, I need to find House2
which is my chosen residential lot 2 Sim Lane ANDI
need to find House42 which is
my chosen VacationIsland lot 42 Old Volcano
Way.

Fig 7

B

Click on the Picture to enlarge this example.

Okay,
when you have located your two lot files, copy them to your desktop, or
someplace safe so you wont lose them should this experiment
go awry. In my case, I created a file on my desktop that is labeled BackupLots
and then I put a copy of both target lots inside.

Fig 8

B

Click on the Picture to enlarge this example!

If you followed
these steps correctly then --Yay! Your two lot files are now safely
backed up! Happy day, its time to move on to the next step!

Chapter Four:

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When youre ready, maximize the Sims game again, and lets
move on to the next step!

The Switch!

Okay, my plan is to transfer the VacationIsland lot 42 to the residential lot 2. So, since my original
residential lot 2 and VacationIsland Lot 42 are both safely tucked away
inside my BackupLots folder, I can now make the switch.

Okay,
copy the expansion pack lot file to your desktop. In my case that is the
House42 file.

Then change the copied files
name to that of the residential lot you are switching it with. In my
case that would be House02 Like
this

Fig 9

B

Click on the Picture to
enlarge this example!

Now,
move the newly copied and renamed expansion pack lot back into the
folder. This will prompt a menu to confirm whether you want to replace
the file or notsimilar to this one

Fig 10

B

Click on the Picture to
enlarge this example!

If you have properly backed up the original file,
then you may choose the Yes
option. Otherwise, click on the cancel button, go
back up your lot, and then come back and redo this step.

If you followed these steps
correctly, the Switch is now done! You may dance around or spin in your chairgo
get a soda, and then lets go start our haunted experiment.

Chapter Five:

Victims

Cheat

The Panic!

Now, if you left the Sims game running, like I did, we are
now ready to go back to the game. If you had shut down the Sims, then now
would be a good time to load it.

Go
back to the Sims *panics*OH NO!
WHERE IS MY LOT! *freak out*

Okay, Im just kidding! *giggle* Relax

If you left your Sims game
running, the transferred lot isnt going to show up yet. We have to
first leave the neighborhood and then come back to get the game to load it.

So,
lets just pop over to the downtown screen for no real
reason reallyjust to get the game to load our new lotas
soon as the DownTown is loaded, lets just hop right back to the
neighborhood screen. When we return to the neighborhood screen the
transferred lot will be there. So, lets do that now

Oh
happy day, there it is!

Fig 11

B

Click on the Picture to
enlarge this example!

*smile*See? I told you
there was nothing to panic about!

Now
its
time to create a family to move into our haunted hotel. (Wellthey
arent
really a family are they? Theyre victimsvictims
in an evil plot to build a bloody Innwhat
are we doing? *frowns*this is awful*giggle*OhI dont know
if I can really do this*choke*Uhg*choke*This is
harder than I thought it would be*giggle*)

Okay, wellif we are ever going
to get anywhere, I gotta do this

So, Since my haunted hotel is
decidedly going to be based on Steven Kings world famous Overlook Hotel
from The
Shining,
I guess it only makes sense to create the original caretaker and his family
as our Hotels first victimsthe Ogradys *eerie music begins to play* So, thats
what Im
going to do now

Now
that the Family/Victims are created, we need to move them into the
Hotel, however, when you first create a family they only have 20,000
Simoleans to start with. Thats a problem, because the Hotel lot
is far more expensive than thatSo, were going to have
to cheat!

This is howMove
your Victims into another lot, that cost less than 20,000 Simoleans. Now, use
the following cheat code to raise your funds.

Press
and Ctrl, Shift, C
on your keyboardall simultaneously!

This
will open a little teal colored text box that will allow you to enter
a cheat code into the game. Type in the following cheat code exactly
as shown.

rosebud;
;

Once
you have entered the code, press and hold down the enter button. This
will increase your Simolean funds as long as you are holding down the
enter key. You can keep track of your funds by watching the funds in
the bottom left menu of the game. (see example below)

C

Click on the Picture to enlarge this example!

Fig 12

When
you have the necessary amount of funds to purchase your hotel, then
simply backspace to erase the text, and hit Enter
key one last time to close the text box.

Now,
save the game and then go to the neighborhood screen.

Now,
evict your victim family from their current residence.

Finally,
move your victim family into the hotel!

OkayNow
we gotta *choke*kill the
poor-innocent-never-had-a-chance-to-sim, simmiesI dont
care how you do itjust do itYou sick and twisted freaks! *giggle*

Okay,
I did the deedit was horrible, but I kept telling myself that Im
doing it for Eggy *giggle*I love that
name, by-the-way! Now that its done, we need to return the lot
back to its original location. Its time to move on to Step 6The Return!

Chapter
Six:

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The Return!

Okay, our hapless victims are laid beneath gravestones on
the Overlooks lawn after dying in a far less violent manner than those
they representthat is the Ogrady family of the Overlook
Hotel
from *creepy
music*The
Shining

OkayThat done, its time to transfer the lots back to
their original places.

Take the altered residential lot (in my case House02) that was originally the
VacationIsland lot and copy it to the desktop.

Rename
the copied file back to its original nameIn my case, House42.

Now,
drop the newly named altered VacationIsland file back into the folder
and choose Yes on the
confirmation menu when it pops up.

Fig 13

B

Click on the Picture to
enlarge this example!

Now,
we NEED to put the original residential lot, in my case House02, back where it was as well.
So, grab it from whatever safe place you stashed it in and copy it back
to the house folder. When the confirmation window asks if you want to
replace the file, tell it YES!

Nowthe files are all
back where they beganonly one is just a little bit different *creepy
music begins to play*I
think its time to move on to the final chapter of this tutorialthe Fix! MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH-guulp-choke-gasp-ha-wheeeeeezeercough*giggle*I think I
got a little carried awaylets fix this
thing!

Chapter Seven:

Question: If you knew
this was going to break my game, then why did you make me do this tutorial?

Answer: Well, first of all, I
didnt make you do anything you chose to do this tutorial on your own, even though
I warned you that it could really mess up your game, so now you only have
yourself to blame! *giggle*

FinallyThe Fix!

Now that the lots are all back where they should be, it
would be tempting to think that everything is right with the world and were
done and now we can just sit back and play with our haunted hotel until we
fall off our chairs laughing at the ghosts scaring guest all night long, ya!
But we are not quite done yet.

And now, I can hear you thinking something likeOther
than building the hotel to look like the one in our nightmares, what else
could we possibly do, Val?

Well, to put it bluntly, the lot is now broken and we
gotta fix it! But dont worry, although it
used to be a big deal, now its just a little bother that can be fixed
with a download!

Let me explainRemember that I
mentioned earlier that all Sims Lots have markers that make it function in
its intended way? Well, when we did our transfer of the lot from
VacationIsland to the Residential neighborhood, we lost the payphones,
because they only function on the VacationIsland lots. You might have seen
the payphones vanish when you accessed the lot to kill your doomed family.

What this means
is that, if left alone as it is, when you take your simmies to VacationIsland
for their vacations, they wont be able to go home. This is the problem
we must fix before you play with it.

Replace the PayPhone

So, this is what
I have done. I extracted the VacationIsland
PayPhone from the Vacation EP. I then cloned it and recategorized it
to be buyable in the home buy catalog as well as the VacationIsland catalogfor 1 Simoleanto make it easy to be
found. It will be located in the electronics section of both catalogs.

Anyway, I tested
the VacationIsland
PayPhone while building this tutorial to make sure it would fix this
problem, and it worked beautifully for mehopefully it will work well for you too.
The best way to use this phone repair is to access your haunted hotel BEFORE
ever taking any simmies there on vacation and then purchase my VacationIsland
Payphone and place it somewhere on the lot. Save the lot and then it
should work fine for you without needing any more work.

You can download
my VacationIsland
Payphone here. Place it in
your downloads folder just like you would any other download. If your Sims is
installed in the default location then you will find that folder here.

C:\Program Files\Maxis\The Sims\Downloads

Now, If you
forgot about fixing the phones and you already have your simmies on vacation,
there is another way you can use my payphone to fix the problem and getyour Simmies homethat is if you have
Davehs Build/Buy Patches installed in your game like I
suggested earlierthen you can just go to the catalog while
you Simmies are on the VacationIsland lot, and let your simmies purchase the
payphone. Then your problem is fixed and they can go home anytime. This is
not permanent, however, so you will need to go back to the VacationIsland
neighborhood screen, without your simmies, and put the PayPhone back on the
lot and save the game.

After you have fixed your lots payphone, youre
done and you can play with it anytime!

Other EP Lots

Now, if you are
anything like me, you have to explore the possibilities in switching lots
from the other EPs as well. (ie. StudioTown, MagicTown, Downtown, OldTown)

So, I made the
necessary phone replacements for all of them as well! *smile* YAY!
You candownload themon myPayphone
Replacementpage, and install them the same way you did the
VacationIsland PayPhone!

Hints and Tips

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Protecting your Haunted Lot:

If you would like to protect the haunted properties of
your lot so that you can bulldoze it without losing your ghosts, simply use
the map_edit
on cheat code to make the area where the tombstones lay uneditable. This
will protect them, so that even when you use the bulldoze function, it will
still leave the tombstone and their ghosts in place. Dont
forget to turn the cheat off.

Other Repairs:

There are other
fixes for the lost payphones, but I have never used them and cannot attest to
how well they work, but you can download them at Totally Sim Crazy 2.
You will find all of their exe payphones in their The Sims 1> objects > Hacked location. They have them for DownTown, MagicTown,
StudioTown, and VacationIsland.

Or if you would just rather put the lot back to the way it
was before we ever started this project, then you can simply put the original
file that you placed safely in a back up folder back into the houses folder
for your particular neighborhood.